Amazon Jungle Marathon

Jungle Marathon

The jungle is a place where a tableau of human emotions unfolded daily, where egos were obliterated and where technology is almost entirely absent. ABC's Matt Gutman, "Nightline" producer Eric Johnson and cameraman Kenny Chow traveled to the remote Amazon tributary called the Tapajos River in Brazil to follow racers through the Jungle Marathon.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

The jungle is a place where a tableau of human emotions unfolded daily, where egos were obliterated and where technology is almost entirely absent. ABC's Matt Gutman, "Nightline" producer Eric Johnson and cameraman Kenny Chow traveled to the remote Amazon tributary called the Tapajos River in Brazil to follow racers through the Jungle Marathon.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

The Jungle Marathon is one of few ultra marathons in the world. It curls through the Amazon jungle for 137 torturous miles over seven days. Shirley Thompson, pictured here in the center, has been running the event for the past seven years.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

Each day, racers endure oppressive heat, thick mud and giant tarantulas as they run from one checkpoint to another. The race is 200 miles from the closest town so each racer is assigned a medic. In this photo, a medic sorts through the mound of gear that the racers bring with them. All of the racers are required to carry gear at all times on their blistered backs.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

Every day started a new leg of the race. Most mornings, racers lined up at 5 a.m. and the toilets are often holes in the ground or just open forest.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

Everyday, racers would hustle through the deep jungle, just hoping that they would get back to base camp before the sun went down.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

Water elements were a huge part of the race. Almost every day, racers endured mile-long swims through swamps and lakes.

Stephen McCulloch

Amazon Jungle Marathon: Where Few Finish

For most of the racers, the swamp swims were a much needed reprieve from the searing temperatures.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

By the third day most of the runner's backs had been chafed raw. Many suffered from terrible heat rash and looked like measles victims. No tents for these guys. Every night in the jungle was spent in hammocks, but racers still had to watch out for the falling tarantulas.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

After days of walking miles and miles, getting chewed by mosquitoes and wading through the wet jungle, the exhausted racers started complaining. Blisters the size of pancakes were common, toenails peeled off like dry skin -- one runner lost seven by the fourth day.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

ABC News cameraman Kenny Chow got stuck in 3 feet of mud during one of the stages of the race. The camera was spared. His Blackberry was not.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

Dr. Juli Goldstein, a former Miss Florida turned veterinarian, was one of a few women in the race. She said she was running the race for her organization, <a href="http://wagstrong.org/">WagStrong</a>. She struggled on day four, and ABC's Matt Gutman helped her find some medical attention. She was back in it just a few hours later.

Stephen McCulloch

Jungle Marathon

One of the racers took a much needed break during the middle of one day of the race. By the end of the marathon, out of the 60 some racers that started the race, only about 11 would complete the course.